More uninteresting crap… Now from England!

…but why I am still freaking out.

10 days to go.

The joys of setting up new hardware… When I got my Dell E1705 it was a royal pain getting my bluetooth Apple Wireless Keyboard paired.

At the time I was unable to get the supplied Toshiba, or the alternate Widcomm drivers to work. By uninstalling all of them, and using the generic Microsoft drivers I was able to successfully pair.

This time around with my new T60p, I was hoping to retain the fresh Widcomm stack, as it includes support for EDR, stereo headphones, etc…

After much trial and error, I stumbled upon the following forum thread

The answer is towards the bottom, and I will copy it here in case the thread disappears.

1. Press Win Start button, choose Run and then type regedit and press enter to access windows registry editor.

2. Into the registry editor search for and select -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Widcomm\\BtConfig\\General

3. Set the key 'PinCodeWord' to a decimal value of 1111

4. Set the key 'UseFixedPin' to a decimal value of 1

5. Then attempt pairing. When you get to the greyed PIN screen type 1111 using OTHER keyboard THAN Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

6. Press the Return key on the Apple keyboard.

7. Enjoy your nice Keyboard.

Photographed by denovich

The full set can be seen here:
New Home Photoset

The most important thing we had to do in the UK was to find someplace to call home. Not just finding a place to live… but a place where we could feel comfortable, a refuge, a place with some feeling of permanence, a proper “home”.

We're very happy with what we have here. We spent the last 6 or 7 years nesting, and it's paid off. It is a fine home in the fullest sense of the word.

Finding somewhere over there I thought would be difficult. We had a tough list of requirements to match… in the Country but within walking distance to services. …with a garage …within a 15 minute commute to work …with a private patio/deck/garden …preferably furnished. Oh yeah, and a price per month within reason.

Amazingly that's just what we found. We had been combing the rental listings for months via the internet. In the week before we left, I noticed a new one in Bourne End… promising, but maybe a bit too far out of the way. I bookmarked it, but mostly forgot about it.

We got to the UK after our brief visit to Switzerland late Friday. This left us the weekend to explore before contacting the agents Monday morning. After seeing Marlow, Deb was as impressed as I was. It would be a nice place to call home, albeit a bit busy for our tastes. One letting agent was open on Saturday so we got an impromptu visit of a fantastic seeming flat overlooking the Thames. Sadly, while th view seemed worth the price, the flat left us… flat. It was dorm room quality at best, and certainly not deserving of the small fortune that was the asking price. The only other listing he had was the Bourne End terraced home. He didn't have time to show it, but could make an appointment Tuesday.

We decided to check it out ourselves. Google Earth, helped us pinpoint it's location, and we drove over to visit. Google Earth is cool, but it failed to convey how pretty the surrounding countryside was. We also discovered the house was adjacent to a network of public hiking trails, some leading through the fields, some to the river, and one right into the village center. There we found a butcher, a grocer, a small supermarket, a hardware store, a bakery, and a few cafes and restaurants. Everything we needed in walking distance. There was even a public library and a train station.

At this point we were practically sold. To impatient to wait until Tuesday to see the place, we found a competing agent and booked an early Monday visit. It did not disappoint, and later that day we committed.

Mission Accomplished.

So much to blog about, so little time/desire to do it…

I suppose I should do it now, or I never will. Expect a few posts as time permits today.

Having accomplished almost everything we were after, we headed home early. Got in late Wednesday night. We'll be around till the end of the month. Lots to do.